What may be blocking you from a happy teacher work-life balance?

In teaching, it can often feel that there is no clear path to a happy work-life balance. Or at least one that enables you to do everything you can to be the best teacher you can be.

There seems to be sense of either or.

You either do the job well or you compromise and have a work-life balance.

But even then, the guilt that there is always more you can be doing in the job can become overwhelming.

Yet, it is possible to enjoy a happy work-life balance that enables you to thrive in teaching and your own life. Read on to the bottom to discover how.

So, what might be blocking your happy work-life balance in teaching?

1. The workload is too much

This will be one of the biggest barriers to you enjoying a work-life balance, and don’t you know!

Most teachers go into teaching for the actual teaching and spending time with students. The average teacher spends less than half their working time actually teaching. The rest is taken up with…

Lesson planning, resource creation, resource printing and organising, classroom set up including displays and general upkeep; marking of classwork, assessments, exam practice questions, essays, chasing late pieces of work, behaviour management of students including detentions, emails or calling home; additional paperwork including SOWs, lesson plans, seating plans, SEND support plans, report writing, data tracking, data analysis as well as all the meetings that go along with this: department meetings, faculty meetings, whole school meetings, CPD and training meetings, morning briefings and parents evenings?too.

There simply is not enough time in the day, week or term to get everything done.

It is no wonder that Education Support reported that 68% say the volume of workload was a “major reason” for considering leaving the profession.

2. You struggle to say no

When schools are understaffed, absences amongst teachers are high and there is constant scrutiny, you may struggle to say no to the demands that keep arriving in your lap.

This may be for a number of reasons.

• You may be a people pleaser and saying no to others feels uncomfortable and wrong to you.
• You may fear that saying no will make you look inconsiderate, not committed to your students or will negatively impact your future career progression.
• You may work for a management team that discourage feedback and do not respond well to independent thinking members of staff.

Whatever the reason may be, by not saying no, you are saying yes to teaching taking over more and more of your time and energy.

3) You lack clear boundaries

A lack of boundaries may be causing you to spend more time and energy physically on school work as you turn to completely your to-do list rather than giving yourself permission to rest and enjoy your life outside of school.

More significantly, if you have blurred emotional boundaries, you may struggle to enjoy a positive work-life balance because you feel that you must take responsibility for things that are often out of your control such as, the welfare of students outside of school or the impact of the cost of living on your students. This may lead you to worrying and overthinking that will leave you feeling more drained and emotionally exhausted at the end of each school day.

What steps can you take to create a happy work-life balance in teaching?

If you need support creating clear boundaries so you can enjoy your work-life balance, make sure that you sign up for the FREE Techer Boundaries Challenge starting on Sunday 15th January 2023.

Join the Teacher Boundaries Challenge